


Waking up

by antigrav_vector



Series: birthday ficlets [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Bucky Barnes Recovering, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Flashbacks, Gen, Hurt Tony, Hurt Tony Stark, Hurt/Comfort, Memory Loss, Mother Hen Bucky Barnes, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-21
Updated: 2017-01-21
Packaged: 2018-09-19 01:34:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9411542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/antigrav_vector/pseuds/antigrav_vector
Summary: Sometimes, waking up really sucks, when your name is Tony Stark. Sometimes, it's also confusing as fuck.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MassiveSpaceWren](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MassiveSpaceWren/gifts).



> A(n also somewhat late) birthday ficlet, but this one's for the wren. Unbeta'ed, but with thanks offered to fynndin for input and suggestions.

Tony woke with a groan, rolling reflexively onto his side with his arms going around his stomach. Fucking hell, he hurt. That felt like a concussion, the accompanying nausea, at least two big bruises between his shoulderblades -- hopefully not too close to his spine, shit -- and a badly sprained wrist.

"Oh, good, you're awake," a gruff voice rasped at him.

Tony startled, the movement sending sparkles of pain and heat that prickled unpleasantly under his skin up and down the length of his body and making him hiss. "Who the fuck are you," he demanded, not bothering to try opening his eyes just yet. If he wasn't dead, yet odds were good that either this guy wasn't out to kill him, or wanted something from him. Either way, Tony had a chance to get home on his own terms.

The question got him an odd grinding, wheezing sort of chuckle. "I'd tell you if I knew."

And that... That got Tony's attention right the fuck away.

Forcing his head up and his eyes open, he scanned the tiny space. It looked like a bedroom in a condemned apartment building somewhere. His armour stood, sentinel-like, in a corner that had no sightlines on the single small window in the room, its outer panels dented, scarred, and covered in soot. It had taken a beating, and so had he. How this guy -- whoever he was -- had gotten him here, and out of said armour was a mystery.

Gingerly tilting his head until he could see the doorway that led to the rest of the apartment, Tony tensed.

"Holy shit," he blurted, recognising the guy immediately. "You're--"

He broke off with a whine, apparently not up to raising his voice _at all_ , and flinched when a hand came to rest on his temple.

"Shh," the guy soothed -- soothed! -- him, and Tony wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry. He'd heard about Cap's tantrum in DC. Boy, had he. He'd been close to the epicenter, when that info-bomb Widow had dropped hit the internet. JARVIS had worked for hours to get copies of all of it, and collate what had been in it. And what they'd found... well, it had sent Tony on another minor crusade, the likes of which he hadn't been on since he'd more or less dealt with the weapons Obie had sold under the table.

Somehow, through a process he knew he'd probably never ever come to grips with, he was in the care of the goddamn Winter Soldier, and _not dead_.

"Yeah, sorry, but he's not here at the moment. It's just me, whoever that is. And no, you're not dead." The man huffed at him, clearly amused, and the hand didn't leave. It was beyond weird, but Tony kind of liked it there.

"Said that out loud, didn't I?" Tony would have winced.

"You did. Think you could eat something?"

Tony thought about it, then made a face. "Probably not."

"Later, then," the guy -- Barnes, Tony reminded himself -- Barnes nodded. "Get some more rest."

What he needed wasn't rest; Tony had to get his armour flightworthy again. Preferably before the Winter Soldier changed his mind about whether Tony was worth keeping alive.

He got as far as putting his feet on the floor and trying to stand before Barnes reappeared in the doorway and _glared_ at him. Tony tried not to flinch backwards at the intensity behind Barnes' eyes. He felt like he was staring down Cap.

"Thought I told you to get some rest," Barnes said, his tone deceptively mild.

Tony straightened his spine and squared his shoulders as best he could. "Yeah, you did. But I have different priorities."

"You have no tools," Barnes pointed out, "no replacement parts, and injuries that need time to heal before you put that armour back on."

"You have no idea what I'm capable of," Tony scoffed, not intending to give in.

"I know you built your first armour in a cave in Afghanistan, and destroyed a large Ten Rings cell in the process. I know you did it without any kind of tools save what they offered you, and those were second hand at best."

Tony fought not to let the memories rise up and drown him, those words sending him right back into that cave. Sending the sensation of cold damp air over his skin and tension into his shoulders that made his whole upper body hurt. Making the arc reactor in his chest feel like a lead weight that was about to collapse his lungs, and the taste of musty water explode over his tongue.

"I have some idea what you can do, Stark," Barnes told him, clearly seeing something he classified as distress, judging by his softening tone, "and I'd prefer you to live until you can do it."

Taking a deep shuddering breath, Tony choked out the question that had been bothering him this whole time. "Why?"

Barnes' expression twisted sharply for a heartbeat before it smoothed out again. He turned to leave, and tossed over his shoulder. "Might not know who I am," he replied, "but I know one thing. I ain't killing anymore unless I got no other goddamn choice."

Tony stared after him, stunned and a bit confused. It took him a minute to accept what Barnes had said. He wasn't sure he _believed_ it, but he accepted it. Carefully, slowly, he stretched back out on the bed. He didn't expect closing his eyes to do much, but he might as well. For all that he claimed not to be the Winter Soldier, Barnes seemed to be on one hell of a hair trigger, and for the time being he was using it to keep Tony in one piece.


End file.
